In the digital age, the integration of technology has become a ubiquitous aspect of modern society. These advancements have significantly enhanced the field of education, allowing students to receive a better learning experience. Digital Tools and Solutions for Inquiry-Based STEM Learning is a comprehensive source of scholarly material on the transformation of science education classrooms through the application of technology. Including numerous perspectives on topics such as instructional design, social media, and scientific argumentation, this book is ideally designed for educators, graduate students, professionals, academics, and practitioners interested in the latest developments in the field of STEM education.

In today's world, contact with other cultures is an inevitable part of university and college life. "Learning and Teaching across Cultures in Higher Education" is intended for anyone who has an interest in intercultural aspects of higher education. The book contains theoretical rationale, resources and examples to help readers understand and deal with situations involving contact between learners or educators from different cultural backgrounds, as well as giving insights into the new global context of higher education.

Rhetorical Ways of Thinking focuses on how the co-construction of learning models the interpretation of a mathematical situation. It is a comprehensive examination of the role of sociocultural-historical theory developed by Vygotsky. This book puts forward the supposition that the major assumptions of sociocultural-historic theory are essential to understanding the theory's application to mathematical pedagogy, which explores issues relevant to learning and teaching mathematics-in-context, thus providing a valuable practical tool for general mathematics education research. The most important goal, then, is to exemplify the merging of the theory with practice and the subsequent applications to mathematics teaching and learning. This monograph contains five chapters, including a primer to Vygotsky's sociocultural historic theory, three comprehensive empirical studies examining: prospective teachers' perception of mathematics teaching and learning and the practice of scaffolded instruction to assist practicing teachers in developing their understanding of pedagogical content knowledge. Finally, the book concludes with a contextualization of the theory, linking it to best practices in the classroom.

This volume presents different conceptual and theoretical frameworks as well as research methods that have helped educational researchers to study emotions. It includes innovative approaches that push the methodological boundaries that have served educational researchers until now and proposes new ways of researching emotions in educational contexts. In particular, this edited volume provides a historical frame for studying emotions. It connects theoretical/epistemological views with choice of research methods and describes specific methods helpful in doing research on emotions as they are grounded in different theoretical and disciplinary traditions such as psychology, philosophy, sociology, history, political science, cultural studies, and feminist studies. Finally, it appreciates the contextual and international dimensions of studying emotions in education and contributes to ongoing debates about the implications of our methodological choices for understanding emotion in education. This combination of variety, timeliness, potential for transformation of the field, and uniqueness make this a very valuable resource to introduce new scholars in the field alongside established scholars.

Human Performance in Complex Systems introduces readers to the theory of complex systems, examining the role of humans within larger systems and the factors that affect human performance. Sections review the history of one particularly fruitful approach to complexity, providing an overview of complexity science that also discusses our current understanding of complex systems in a variety of domains, including physical, biological, mechanical and organizational. The author also introduces the idea that there are similarities between the successful architecture and control of both biological and organizational systems. Case studies concerning failures and successes within complex systems are also included. The book concludes by using the preceding material to develop principles that can be applied for successful design and control of complex systems.

Handling complexity in learning environments: theory and research
What do we mean when we say that "learning environments are increasingly complex"? What do we know about the cognitive processing that occurs during complex learning? How can we provide effective instructional support for students who must learn and apply complex knowledge? These questions, and related issues, have fascinated educators and educational researchers for many years and are they are the focus of this book.

As a tribute to Joost Lowyck, professor educational technology at the K.U.Leuven, eminent scholars from around the globe have contributed to a far reaching analysis of complexity in learning environments from a cognitive perspective. The chapter authors summarize what we know now about complexity and make specific suggestions for educational practice and for future research on complexity. The different contributions in the several chapters discuss theoretical accounts and empirical findings about learning, the learner, and learning environments. Wide-ranging topics include current descriptions of our cognitive architecture, new contributions to cognitive load theory, research and evaluation design considerations, motivation to learn, the influence of prior knowledge, the use of simulations and multimedia, alternative instructional methods and interventions, studies of the classroom context for complex learning and mental model-building.
*A tribute to Joose Lowyck, professor educational technology at the KU Leuven
*International scholars provide far reaching analysis of complexity in learning environments from a cognitive perspective
*Makes specific suggestions for educational practice andfor future research

This edited volume explores the multifaceted nature of teacher emotions, presenting current research from different approaches and perspectives, focused towards the second language classroom. Twenty three chapters by well-known scholars from the applied linguistics, TESOL and educational psychology fields provide the reader with a holistic picture of teacher emotions, making this collection a significant contribution to the field of second language teaching. Given the emotional nature of teaching, the book explores a number of key issues or dimensions of L2 teachers' emotions that were until now rarely considered. The contributions present the views of a select group of applied linguistic researchers and L2 teacher educators from around the world. This international perspective makes the book essential reading for both L2 teachers and teacher educators.

Contemporary Capacity-Building in Educational Contexts extends current understandings of what capacities and capacity-building are and of the dimensions that maximise their prospects of success in current educational policy-making and provision. It does this by exploring how capacity-building is implemented among nine groups of research participants, including Australian, Dutch and English circus families, migrants and refugees in an Australian regional town, and a university education research team. These data sets are analysed to address eight 'hot topics' and 'wicked problems' in contemporary education: consciousness; creativity; dis/empowerment and agency; diversity and identity; forms of capital and currencies; knowledge sharing; regionality and rurality; and resilience.

"Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences" helps individuals, both students and researchers, master the key concepts and resources needed to use Rasch techniques for analyzing data from assessments to measure variables such as abilities, attitudes, and personality traits. Upon completion of the text, readers will be able to confidently evaluate the strengths and weakness of existing instrumentation, compute linear person measures and item measures, interpret Wright Maps, utilize Rasch software, and understand what it means to measure in the Human Sciences.

Each of the 24 chapters presents a key concept using a mix of theory and application of user-friendly Rasch software. Chapters also include a beginning and ending dialogue between two typical researchers learning Rasch, "Formative Assessment Check Points," sample data files, an extensive set of application activities with answers, a one paragraph sample research article text integrating the chapter topic, quick-tips, and suggested readings.

"Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences" will be an essential resource for anyone wishing to begin, or expand, their learning of Rasch measurement techniques, be it in the Health Sciences, Market Research, Education, or Psychology. "

This ambitious multidisciplinary volume assembles diverse critical-theory approaches to the current and future states of networked learning. Expert contributors expand upon the existing literature by analyzing the ethical aspects of networked learning and the ongoing need for more open, inclusive, and socially engaged educational practice. Chapters explore in depth evolving concepts of real and virtual, the processes of learning in, against, and beyond the internet, and the role of critical pedagogy in improving social conditions. In all, coverage is both realistic and positive about the potential of digital technologies in higher education as well as social and academic challenges on the horizon. Included among the topics: Counting on use of technology to enhance learning. Decentralized networked learning through online pre-publication. The reality of the online teacher. Moving from urban to virtual spaces and back. The project of a virtual emancipatory pedagogy. Using information technologies in the service of humanity. It is no longer a question of "Can technology enhance learning" it's a given that it does. Critical Learning in Digital Networks offers education researchers, teacher educators, instructional technologists, and instructional designers tools and methods for strengthening this increasingly vital interconnection.

The construct of intellectual disability has developed over centuries and has had different functions at different times; from a concept that was used to describe people from whom society needed protecting from in the late to 19th and early 20th centuries, to one used to describe people who are unable to cope in the current environment. It is now defined in terms of having a measured IQ below a fixed cut off point, usually 70, and a low level of adaptive behaviour also often specified in terms of being below a cut off point. Intellectual Disability demonstrates that neither IQ nor adaptive behaviour can be measured with sufficient accuracy for fixed cut off points to be used and suggests a number of new much more loosely defined constructs of intellectual disability based on clinical judgment.

This book advances a new framework for learning to teach, using in-depth case studies to show how learning to teach-in any type of program-can best be understood as a recursive and dynamic process, wherein teachers differentially access programmatic, relational, experiential, disciplinary, and dispositional resources. In the last twenty years, debates in the field of teacher preparation have increasingly become paralyzing and divisive as rhetoric around the failure of university teacher preparation intensifies. The author addresses the historical and practical factors that animate these debates, arguing that novice teachers and teacher educators must understand the central conflicts in the field; however, the book also advances a way of approaching learning to teach that accounts for but does not get stuck at the level of programmatic designation. Using lively, in-depth case studies, the author shows how novice urban English teachers from two different teacher preparation pathways-a university-based program and an urban teacher residency-learn to teach within a policy context of high-stakes testing and "college readiness."

The research and theoretical contributions of international and multidisciplinary scholars have advanced our understanding of the role of play in evolution and behavior. The diverse articles in this volume range from theoretical and conceptual advances, scientific investigations, to discourse about applied issues and different dimensions of play. The authors provide excursions into the adaptive, cultural, and social significance of play. The databased papers fall into four categories: the role of age, gender, and ethnicity in play participation, social-cognitive connections to play, fighting and play fighting, and play and process in adulthood. Play is defined as behavior that is not necessary to survival and yet is undertaken voluntarily as a method by which to improve the quality of life. This study, addressing the definition, role, and characteristics of play, falls within the research of education, psychology, anthropology, sociology, leisure studies, and primatology. The play of humans and nonhumans takes a variety of forms and serves multiple purposes within mental and emotional states of being. The motivation and impact of play behavior varies with the type of play performed. The studies included in this volume address simple games, more complex creative activities, the emotional implications of play throughout adult life, and the role of play in human social construction.

This book contributes to our growing understanding of the nature and development of language learner self-concept. It assesses the relevant literature in the disciplines of psychology and applied linguistics and describes in-depth, qualitative research examining the self-concepts of tertiary-level EFL learners. Although researchers in applied linguistics and SLA have recognized the importance of self-constructs, there remains little empirical work in the context of foreign language learning that focuses exclusively and at length on this central psychological construct. The content of this monograph draws on interdisciplinary sources, with input from psychology and applied linguistics. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in language-learner psychology as well as self-related constructs in general. The text provides insights into how learners view themselves, and how these self-beliefs can develop and affect the progress of an individual's language learning.

This book explores the impact of socio-emotional intelligence on wellbeing in higher education. Stemming from years of investigation and educational expertise with trainee teachers and academics, the book identifies ways in which socio-emotional intelligence can be developed in university environments. The author begins by analysing the concept of socio-emotional intelligence and its development, before confronting distinctive areas for improvement within the context of teaching and learning in higher education. The book explores the importance of understanding and labelling emotions, and how opportunities for self-reflection arise through an environment that meets practical needs. The author contends that support from other scholars is vital to the development of socio-emotional intelligence. The book concludes with a set of practical suggestions for promoting personal development. It will be a valuable resourse for anyone working in higher education who is interested in improving their own wellbeing and that of those around them.

This volume addresses the current situation in higher education and what creative action needs to be taken for the future development of the various systems of higher education. Higher education in the 21st centuries is under immense pressure from various sides. First, there is dramatic limitation of funding from public sources and limited and selective funding support from private sources that is re-constructing the landscape of higher education in most societies around the World. Secondly there is the continuous stream of administrative re-organization efforts of political origins (e.g. "the Bologna process") that guide the advancement of higher education in our present time. Increasing privatization of all forms of higher education-from bachelor to doctoral levels-and its corresponding focus on the advancement of the kind of knowledge that has immediate applicability in various spheres of societies leads to the question- what kind of creativity is expected from the new cohorts of students-future makers of knowledge-once the current social re-organization of higher education systems becomes fully established. To address these questions the international, interdisciplinary cast of authors in this volume provides a multitude of possible scenarios for future development of the systems of higher education. This book on "Sustainable Futures of Higher Education" captures the current trends and perspectives of the Knowledge Makers from various nations of the world on meeting and greeting the challenges of globalization and the pressures of the knowledge economy. It makes a strong case for universities of tomorrow sustaining their autonomous thinking and yet nurturing an environment of collaborative partnership with society, corporate and industry to fuel innovations in plenty and continuous supply of new science and technologies. Higher Education has been and shall remain a powerful vehicle of national and global transformation. I see a great value of the publication in impacting the minds of the leaders in higher education around the globe for revitalizing the universities. Professor P. B Sharma, President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU How should the higher education system be in the globalization era? In this book Jaan Valsiner and his colleagues analyze, criticize the existing and propose a new higher education system. When we say "higher education", three different layers are supposed to be there-- the lower, the middle and the higher. The latter has the function of production of new knowledges. Without new knowledge, our societies are never improving. Authors warn commercialized systems such as the "Bologna system" overestimate the homogeneity of education. ""Universities without Borders" would guarantee both diversity and innovation in the higher education systems. Professor Tatsuya Sato, Dean of Research, Ritsumekan University

This book addresses the gap between formal music education curricula and the knowledge and skills necessary to enter the professional music industry. It uses extensive data from a long-running research project where high school students were invited to start their own business venture, Youth Music Industries. Not only did this act as a business venture, but it also functioned as a learning environment informed by the concepts of Communities of Practice and social capital. Exploring how entrepreneurial qualities were developed, their learning was subsequently captured and distilled into a set of design principles: in this way, a pedagogical approach was developed that can be transferred across the creative industries more broadly. This book will be of interest and value to scholars of music education, as well as those preparing students for the creative industries.

This book explores art practice and learning as processes that break new ground, through which new perceptions of self and world emerge. Examining art practice in educational settings where emphasis is placed upon a pragmatics of the 'suddenly possible', Atkinson looks at the issues of ethics, aesthetics, and politics of learning and teaching. These learning encounters drive students beyond the security of established patterns of learning into new and modified modes of thinking, feeling, seeing, and making.

Creative problem solving, collaboration, and technology fluency are core skills requisite of any nation's workforce that strives to be competitive in the 21st Century. Teaching these types of skills is an economic imperative, and assessment is a fundamental component of any pedagogical program. Yet, measurement of these skills is complex due to the interacting factors associated with higher order thinking and multifaceted communication. Advances in assessment theory, educational psychology, and technology create an opportunity to innovate new methods of measuring students' 21st Century Skills with validity, reliability, and scalability. In this book, leading scholars from multiple disciplines present their latest research on how to best measure complex knowledge, skills, and abilities using technology-based assessments. All authors discuss theoretical and practical implications from their research and outline their visions for the future of technology-based assessments.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness is the first major account integrating research on solitude, silence and loneliness from across academic disciplines and across the lifespan. The editors explore how being alone - in its different forms, positive and negative, as solitude, silence and loneliness - is learned and developed, and how it is experienced in childhood and youth, adulthood and old age. Philosophical, psychological, historical, cultural and religious issues are addressed by distinguished scholars from Europe, North and Latin America, and Asia.

Teach the Way the Brain Learns discusses organizing learning experiences under themes. Once the brain has stored basic concepts in the curriculum, the storing-by-association system of the brain attaches new information to those basic concepts, building new ones as students have learning experiences that involve them in integrated subject matter. Thematic teaching has been around for quite a while, stemming from John Dewey and 'learning by doing.' Teachers need to return to it in view of the effects of narrowed curricula resulting from nationwide emphasis on testing and on rating schools based on student achievement. This book provides ways for teachers to link subjects and areas of learning for various teaching situations and takes readers from simple correlation through using published thematic units now available and on to developing their own interdisciplinary themes or in team efforts with other colleagues.

This personal, creative, critical work from a leading scholar of psychology is rooted in three novel concepts and aims to share critical pedagogy in the spirit of nascent potential found in the context of a colonial Puerto Rico. First comes the idea of pedagogy in (e)motion, or the emotional matrix of the teaching and learning process. Secondly, the author explores the notion of street pedagogy as a genuine and powerful professional tool. And thirdly, the book underscores what Zambrana-Ortiz calls the interconnection of the "artscience" within the political and biographical act of teaching .

The purpose is to inform education teaching practice with the radical framework that, like the neurosciences, believes emotions to be a vital precursor to the planning of action, the process of decision-making and the broadening of our cognitive parameters. The chapters focus on different and yet complementary dimensions of a college teaching initiative boasting a unique interplay between a transgressive narrative, reinvented methodology and authentic samples of students contributions to the project. Traditionally, emotional and visceral experiences have been downplayed and rejected as fundamental components of knowledge. This book makes the case for their reinstatement, and proposes that the pleasure and commitment of teaching itself can be seen as resistance given the challenging social and political context, the bureaucracy of the Puerto Rican higher education system, and the cynicism of the self-confessed "cognoscenti" who think that little political progress can come from within the university system. Such resistance has proved for the author a source of inspiration and has contributed to her creation and reconceptualization of approaches to critical and useful pedagogy.

D edication

To my students who inspire many stories and provoke many emotions and challenge my capacities

To Aura, Ignacio and Jaime for their unconditional love and their everyday lessons

A cknowledgments

Many friends, mentors and colleages from the University of Puerto Rico and United States were very important pieces to my creative work. Thanks to Donaldo Macedo who encouraged the initial proposal and to Joe Kincheloe for accepting it and bringing guidance in the right moment. Colleages like Roame Torres and Angeles Molina, from their directive positions, were extremely supportive while Sandra Macksoud, Jose Solis, Pedro Subirats, and Ada Prabhavat gave me guidance and constant insights in editing and translation, as well as crucial material for my narrative. Juan Vadi enhanced my graphic elements with his talent; while college mentors, current colleages, teachers, and former graduate and undergraduate students allowed me to write their stories and reflections binging fresh accents and life to the book. Thanks for ever

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